The present invention relates to a method and system for providing advertisements, and more particularly to a method and system for providing location targeted advertisements to mobile devices.
Persons who travel through a geographic region can use different types of mobile or portable computing platforms to obtain various geographically-related features and services. Mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services include dedicated computing devices and general purpose computing devices. Dedicated computing devices include in-vehicle navigation systems and personal (i.e., portable or hand-held) navigation systems. General purpose computing devices include devices, such as mobile telephones, portable personal computers (e.g., notebook computers, tablets) and personal digital assistants (e.g., PDAs).
Some of the various geographically-related features and services provided by the different types of mobile or portable computing platforms include route calculation and guidance. For example, some mobile or portable computing platforms are able to provide users with an optimum route to travel by roads between locations in a geographic region. Using input from an end user, and optionally from equipment that can determine the end user's physical location (such as a GPS system), a navigation application program used by a mobile or portable computing platform system examines various paths between two locations to determine an optimum route to travel from a starting location to a destination location in the geographic region. The user of the mobile or portable computing platform is then provided with information about the optimum route in the form of instructions that identify the maneuvers required to be taken by the end user to travel from the starting location to the destination location.
Another geographically-related feature provided by some mobile or portable computing platforms is business or person finding services (e.g., electronic yellow or white pages). These services can identify addresses of individuals or businesses. These services can also identify for a user which businesses of a certain type (e.g., Chinese restaurants) are located within a given range (e.g., 3 miles) of a given location.
Although present mobile or portable computing platforms that provide geographically-related features and services are able to provide many useful advantages, there continues to be room for improvement. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to providing information to end users based upon their location. Some types of information, such as advertising, can be more effective or useful if it is restricted to only certain specific locations. For example, a gas station located in Chicago would not advertise to users located in Miami.
Accordingly, it is an objective to deliver advertising to end users who are traveling in a geographic region. One area in which there is room for improvement relates to creating and providing advertisements to the end user of the mobile or portable computing platforms. It would be beneficial to both the advertiser and the users to provide advertisements that are tailored to the end users and encourage action by the end users.